Speculation was rife today that the striker's Anfield days are numbered and that Gerard Houllier might be prepared to listen to offers of around #15million.

Real Madrid, Valencia, Chelsea and Leeds are all thought to be monitoring the situation.

However, with Fowler preparing for tomorrow's England v Holland clash and Houllier away from Melwood, the matter won't be resolved until later this week.

The Liverpool boss has already shown that he prefers the partnership of Michael Owen and Emile Heskey in attack when it comes to the big games, with Fowler starting both the FA Cup and UEFA Cup finals on the bench in May, although he was in the starting XI for the Worthington Cup final.

However, this was not behind Houllier's shock decision to omit Fowler from his 18-strong squad for Sunday's Charity Shield win over Manchester United.

Fowler was involved in a minor training ground bust-up on Friday as Houllier prepared to finalise his team for Cardiff. The suggestion is that the striker had a heated exchange with assistant manager Phil Thompson which resulted in the 26-year old being overlooked completely for a game in which he was desperate to play.

Contract talks between Liverpool and Fowler had been planned for this summer but so far only preliminary negotiations have taken place.

Less than two weeks ago it was put to Fowler that the talks had not gone well but he remained in a positive state of mind.

"Negotiations are at very early stages so we've not delved in too deep. There's no problem," he said.

The matter has been further complicated by reports that England boss Sven Goran Eriksson has told Fowler he must be playing first team football to hold down a regular international place.

Eriksson, who sees Fowler as the man to lead the England line alongside Michael Owen, is said to have recommended the player to former club Lazio.

Now we must wait and see whether the Fowler incident blows over or signals the end of a famous Anfield career.

Meanwhile, contract talks between Michael Owen and Liverpool have reached an advanced stage.

Owen's advisors are mulling over a deal the club has offered and Gerard Houllier is hopeful that negotiations will soon be sorted out.

"We want to keep Michael Owen at Liverpool and Michael Owen wants to stay at Liverpool - those two things are a good start for both of us," he said.